NZ Vape News

Quit Smoking and Start Vaping

Posted on Jan 05, 2017

Ok, so you want to quit smoking and start vaping instead. You are sick to the eyeballs of trying useless nicotine patches that don’t seem to work. The nicotine inhalers that you use are just plain uncomfortable and never seem to give you the hit that you deserve. You have decided that enough is enough and that you’re going to take the plunge and start using vaporizers to try and kick the habit for good. If you have decided all of this, well the good news is that vaporizers really can help you stop smoking ,and not only that, vaporizers can lead to a healthier more productive you. Once you have made the momentous decision to start vaping you’ll soon discover that a whole host of benefits lie in wait for you, not least that you’ll no longer smell like a stinking ashtray.

HOW CAN YOU QUIT SMOKING

As anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking knows its not an easy thing to do. There are them incessant cravings, the longing for a cigarette, the need to be holding something in your hand. There are so many different facets to the addiction of cigarettes that its no wonder why its such a difficult habit to kick. The main thing to consider is how you are going to wean yourself off the cigarettes, and the best way to do this is usually on a gradual basis. If you start to ween yourself off on a gradual basis you’ll find that the physical symptoms of addiction wont be quite as pronounced, and so, this will result in an easier transition to a no smoking you.

THE NEXT STEP

You should spend some time on trying to source a high quality vaporizer that will suit your needs. One of the things you should be considering is how durable the vaporizer is and how much nicotine the device can hold. Once you have picked a vaporizer that you feel is right for you, you can then focus all your energies into the kicking the habit for good. The first thing you’ll need to do with your vaporizer is to adjust the strength of the nicotine to what you’ll consider bearable for you. The reason why this is so important is because if you haven’t picked the proper level of nicotine you may become agitated and this is something that you’ll most certainly want to avoid when you’re trying to quit smoking. Once you have picked the proper nicotine strength you can then begin vaping away. It may take you a little while to get the hang of using your vaporizer, but like everything, with practice comes perfection.

WHAT STRENGTH

Many vaporizer companies will have different strength vaporizer cartridges available and picking the right one for you is of vital importance. On a personal level I found that the medium strength cartridge was the one that worked best for me. The reason why I found the medium strength so good was because it gave me just enough to nicotine to satisfy my cravings and just enough nicotine to allow me to quit smoking. Of course, you can try some of the higher strength versions, and for some people these higher strength versions do work best but in my case I found them far too strong. What happened to me was I became addicted to the higher strength nicotine and it was almost like I was swapping one addiction for another. Another thing you could consider doing is starting at the high strength nicotine, and then after a few months going to medium strength, and then right down to the lowest level, and then ultimately quitting. This tactic can take up to three months to ween yourself off the cigarettes, but for many people they have found it to be a very successful method.

HITTING THE LOW STUFF

As soon as you start consistently using the lower strength nicotine you’ll discover that you’re not that far off the prize, the holy grail, of quitting cigarettes for good. You’ll soon discover that you’ll start leaving your vaporizer at home more and more often. Time will begin to pass and the thoughts of using your vaporizer wont even cross your mind, and when this happens, you wont be too far off quitting for good. I discovered on a few occasions that when I looked at my watch that I hadn't taken a draw from my vaporizer for over 3 hours, and this was something that completely astonished me, as only a few months before I struggled to go a few minutes without taking a draw. The fact is that once you start forgetting about your vaporizer you brain is getting rewired and is no longer having to satisfy the cravings that it previously had.

What worked best for me was to try and consciously leave the vaporizer at home, and I found that when I formed this habit it became much easier to do without it in the long run. Another tactic I employed was to leave the vaporizer in a location that it was hard to retrieve. For example, when going to work I would leave my vaporizer in the boot of the car, and when I got a craving the thoughts of having to go outside in the cold and retrieve the device really put me off. With this tactic, I found that gradually over a period of time, that I wanted to use the vape less and less. Another strategy that I used was to leave my vaporizer out in the garage, and similarly, the thoughts of going out into a cold dark night in my slippers, opening the garage door, and retrieving the vaporizer became too much to bear. More often than not, in these situations I would decide to ride out the storm, let the cravings pass, and do without my nicotine hit. From my experience, when you add up all of these little different tactics, they will make a big difference to getting you to quit the habit.

USING ZERO NICOTINE

It can be a terrifying thought of having to go without nicotine for good, but when this day comes you’ll almost certainly find yourself feeling liberated and free. When you have reached this stage you should buy yourself some zero strength nicotine and the start using it inside of the low strength one- the reason for this is because you still may have a habit of wanting to hold and put something to your mouth and this will result in this problem being rectified. Once you have reached this stage you are basically at the finish line, all you have to do is make sure that you don’t have any slip ups that send you back to square one. The zero level nicotine is like a security blanket to try and prevent any mishaps from occurring and from my experience it worked a treat.

OVERALL

I have to say that from my experience the trick to quitting smoking is to take things gradually. When I tried to quit I found that the faster I tried to get the harder it became to kick the habit. If you take things nice and slowly your body has a chance to adjust to the changes that will happening inside and out, and this will result in a far greater success rate. Traditionally, there has been quite a high attrition rate when it comes to people quitting smoking and this rate of failure is usually down to people trying to attempt to do too much too soon. The best strategy for anyone to adopt is use your vaporizer as a tool to help you get off the cigs, but to use your vaporizer wisely. There is no point in trying to quit all gungho and using the low strength nicotine straight away as this will result in your body experiencing withdrawals causing you to go straight back onto the cigarettes. Overall, the trick is to take the various stages of quitting nice and slowly. Use the high strength nicotine, and then after a few months downgrade to mid strength, then low, and then down to zero strength nicotine. By adopting this tactic you will give your body the time and space that it needs to adjust to a new way of life. And whilst vaporizers might seem expensive, but when you consider the overall cost of saving 10$ on a pack of cigarettes a day this puts the true cost of owning a vaporizer into perspective. Remember If all else fails you could decide to put a nicotine patch over each eye thereby preventing you finding your cigarettes.